NEWS FLASH

Monday, September 19, 2016

Aadhaar card now must for Government
Schemes, Benefits

NEW DELHI: The
use of Aadhaar card+ is set to become mandatory for all central and state
government subsidies and benefits which require funding from the central
exchequer with the Centre notifying the unique identity (UID) regulations.

While
the law had empowered the Centre to mandate use of Aadhaar, the rules clearly
stipulate that any agency, such as the oil ministry dealing with cooking gas+
or HRD's scholarship schemes, has to ensure all beneficiaries are enrolled
under UID+ . For this, they have been asked to tie up with registrars or enrol
individuals themselves.

"Ministries
will have to notify schemes for which Aadhaar number is required. In case
someone does not have Aadhaar, he will be asked to enrol for the same. If you
are asking for Aadhaar and if enrollment facilities are not in a convenient
location, the agency has to ensure that people are not left in the lurch,"
said Ajay Bhushan Pandey, CEO of the UID Authority of India (UIDAI).

Pandey
also said the regulations strongly address privacy concerns over Aadhaar
misuse+ by incorporating a three-year jail term for an offence. "The big
brother concern has been dealt with. If a government or private entity uses
Aadhaar number for some other purpose... if a company shares the data, it
becomes a criminal offence," Pandey said.

The
particular clause has been inserted to address concerns raised by civil society
groups that mandating Aadhaar will exclude genuine beneficiaries, who do not
possess a UID, from government schemes. The rules mean the onus will now be on
agencies like oil companies or banks to make sure beneficiaries have Aadhaar
numbers to access benefits ranging from subsidies and pensions.

Though
the Supreme Court had earlier held Aadhaar could not be made mandatory for
government schemes while extending "voluntary use" of UID numbers to
MGNREGA, pensions, cooking gas, PDS, EPF and Jan Dhan accounts, the new law and
its regulations will help the Centre expand the ambit of UID to virtually all
government schemes.

The
data security rules make it incumbent for UIDAI, registrars, enrolling
agencies, companies and authentication service providers to observe a strict
protocol. "The rules require every entity seeking to use Aadhaar to
preserve information for a certain number of years and be subject to an
audit," Pandey said, adding that an entity seeking Aadhaar will need
consent to disclose the information each time it wants to share the data.

The
regulations also provide more leeway for capturing biometric information. In
cases where fingerprints are not easily registered, like in the case of elderly
persons, iris scans will do. This has been added to existing flexibility for
persons with disabilities or injuries.